Wednesday, 12 September 2012

This being the spring season, San Pedro, as well as all the other
open ports upon the coast, was filled with whales, that had come in to
make their annual visit upon soundings. For the first few days that we
were here and at Santa Barbara, we watched them with great
interest -- calling out “there she blows!” every time we saw the spout of
one breaking the surface of the water; but they soon became so common
that we took little notice of them. They often “broke” very near us; and
one thick, foggy night, during a dead calm, while I was standing
anchor-watch, one of them rose so near, that he struck our cable, and
made all surge again. He did not seem to like the encounter much
himself, for he sheered off, and spouted at a good distance. We once
came very near running one down in the gig, and should probably have
been knocked to pieces and blown sky-high. We had been on board the
little Spanish brig, and were returning, stretching out well at our
oars, the little boat going like a swallow; our backs were forward (as
is always the case in pulling), and the captain, who was steering, was
not looking ahead, when, all at once, we heard the spout of a whale
directly ahead. “Back water! back water, for your lives!” shouted the
captain; and we backed our blades in the water and brought the boat to
in a smother of foam. Turning our heads, we saw a great, rough,
hump-backed whale, slowly crossing our fore foot, within three or four
yards of the boat’s stem. Had we not backed water just as we did, we
should inevitably have gone smash upon him, striking him with our stem
just about amidships. He took no notice of us, but passed slowly on, and
dived a few yards beyond us, throwing his tail high in the air. He was
so near that we had a perfect view of him and as may be supposed, had no
desire to see him nearer. He was a disgusting creature; with a skin
rough, hairy, and of an iron-grey color. This kind differs much from the
sperm, in color and skin, and is said to be fiercer. We saw a few sperm
whales; but most of the whales that come upon the coast are fin-backs,
hump-backs, and right-whales, which are more difficult to take, and are
said not to give oil enough to pay for the trouble. For this reason
whale-ships do not come upon the coast after them. Our captain, together
with Captain Nye of the Loriotte, who had been in a whale-ship, thought
of making an attempt upon one of them with two boats’ crews, but as we
had only two harpoons and no proper lines, they gave it up.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.: from Chapter XVIII in Two Years Before the Mast (1840)

Humpback Whale flukes. Taken off
Surfer's Paradise, Queensland during the annual northerly migration from the Antarctic to the warmer waters of the Coral Sea: photo by Terry Howard, June 2005

Humpback Whale breaching, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, off Scituate, Massachsetts. Humpbacks frequently breach, throwing two-thirds or more of their bodies out of the water and splashing down on their backs: photo by Whit Welles, 20 August 2007

Humpback Whales in North Pass between Lincoln Island and Shelter Island in the
Lynn Canal north of Juneau, Alaska. This is a group of 15 whales that
were engaged in cooperative "bubble net" fishing: photo by Evadb, 18 August 2007; image by Jjron, 22 September 2007

A whale is captured by the Yushin Maru, a Japanese harpoon vessel. This
image was taken by Australian customs agents in 2008, under a
surveillance effort to collect evidence of indiscriminate harvesting,
which is contrary to Japan's claim that they are collecting the whales
for the purpose of scientific research. In 2010, Australia filed a
lawsuit in the International Court of Justice hoping to halt Japanese
whaling; this photograph will undoubtedly play a key role in that
pending case: photo by Customs and Border Protection Service, Commonwealth of Australia, 6 February 2008

A harpooned Minke whale is captured by the Yushin Maru, a Japanese harpoon vessel: photo by Customs and Border Protection Service, Commonwealth of Australia, 6 February 2008

A Minke whale and her 1-year-old calf are dragged aboard the
Nisshin Maru, a Japanese whaling vessel that is the world's only whaling
factory ship. The wound that is visible on the calf's side was
reportedly caused by an explosive-packed harpoon. The sign above the slipway reads, "Legal research under the ICRW". Australia released this photo to challenge that claim: photo by Customs and Border Protection Service, Commonwealth of Australia, 6 February 2008

Save On Whale: whale meat on sale at the Tsukiji fish market, Tokyo: photo by spDuchamp, 4 February 2008

Humpback Whale submerging, off St. Anthony, Newfoundland: photo by Zircon_215, 3 August 2010

Humpback Whale tail, off St. Anthony, Newfoundland: photo by Zircon_215, 3 August 2010

12 comments:

There's a terrible cultural discontinuity between the complex, highly-evolved social organization of the whales, and the brutal, unapologetic, technological harvesting of these creatures by this other allegedly complex, highly-evolved form of social organization.

Tom,". . . and one thick, foggy night, during a dead calm, while I was standing anchor-watch, one of them rose so near, that he struck our cable, and made all surge again. . . ." Such a pure and innocent sense in Dana's account of this encounter with whales off California coast, perhaps the first (written) eyewitness evidence of such sightings. What beautiful creatures of the deep (and surface) and yes, such "cultural discontinuity" with what goes on aboard the Yushin Maru and other such vessels, not to mention the Tokyo Fish Market.

She’s wolfing down a can of beetsat the sink, standing therewith the can and a fork.She swallows the slices down whole.She is far away from herebecause she is so angry.The beets cool her ragein her red throat—tongues that can’t screamin accentless English—her widow’s peakpointing the way downto her white teeth.

We all remember the days of saving the world, the whales, the humans, everything living, the sacredness of the land and its creatures. And you my friend actually went out and set your sails on doing that, and have achieved many great things. So while it's obvious that the silly and often uninformed idealism of the young (well, some of the young) looks pretty futile in light of the overwhelming powers now aligned against life, it's still some consolation that not everybody is ready as yet to bow down before the God of the Android Smartphone. Maybe youthful idealism is a kind of vitamin a culture needs if it's to have any chance to survive.